Page 115 of The Woman By the Lake

When or if he was ready to do that, or I was, we’d discuss it.

We also caught a few more episodes of Only Murders in the Building because it all couldn’t be weighty all the time.

I went to sleep every night in Riggs’s bed, but before I fell asleep, I was elated he spent a great deal of time in me.

And Riggs and I woke up in plenty of time I could do my thing, hustle back to the guest room, change clothes, and he and I could deal with Ledger in the mornings.

He resolutely did school runs, concerned that Angelica might take that opportunity to show and take potshots at me. Also, because it gave him more time with his son.

But tonight, Abigail was over, and we were cooking dinner, and Riggs had decided (and I agreed) that tonight was the night we were going to tell his son and his mother we were a thing.

“Nadia.”

I turned from putting a knife on one of the placemats I bought Riggs to see she was standing by the stairwell column, closed off on the dining room side, but still wood paneled so the part of it that extended into the round room was a feature.

“Call down to the boys, would you?” she asked. “Give them a heads-up dinner will be ready in twenty minutes.”

“Will do,” I said.

She disappeared.

I finished setting the table and headed to the window.

Riggs and Ledger were on the pier, had the tarp pulled back on an edge of the fishing boat and were doing something.

The windows were open to let in the fresh air, so I called through the screen, “Guys! Dinner in twenty!”

Ledger turned and waved.

Riggs, who was crouched by the boat, twisted his neck to look up at me, and still, in that position, managed to jut his chin out at me.

God, he was totally and completely such a man.

But I liked it.

Trevor had been a man too (not as much as Riggs, but he had). And I definitely liked him.

I was about to move away from the window when something caught my eye. A flash in the woods some ways down from my cabin, close to the southern end of the lake.

I didn’t see it directly, but it seemed like the sun struck something and caused a reflection.

I kept my eyes aimed that way, but it didn’t happen again.

In normal circumstances, I wouldn’t think about it.

In these circumstances, I made a note to tell Riggs. It was probably nothing, but it might be hunters or someone on his land who shouldn’t be, and he should know.

I rejoined Abigail in the kitchen. We were making her menu of roast rosemary chicken, mashed potatoes with roasted garlic, gravy, green beans and dinner rolls. Not to be outdone by my stout cake both Riggs boys kept raving about, she’d brought over a homemade carrot cake that looked dreamy.

I didn’t have a competitive bone in my body.

But a cake competition I could get into.

“The potatoes ready to whip up?” I asked.

She stopped testing them with the tip of a knife and turned to me.

“I’m going to apologize in advance to you. Some of my friends say I can be too direct. But I’m afraid it’s something I can’t rein in when it comes to one of my children.”

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